Timesharing or vacation ownership began in Europe in the middle of the 1960's. Ski resorts in the French Alps were the first to experiment with the idea. Later, in the 1970's the ideas and procedures became well known. It is now estimated that over 3 million timeshares have been sold since 1980 and currently there are approximately 3 thousand vacation ownership resorts in over 75 countries.
The idea of exchanging a vacation ownership week for another vacation week in a different resort began in 1974 when Resort Condominiums International (RCI) was formed by Christel and John DeHaan. Other companies such as Interval International (II) subsequently joined the timeshare industry and in 1994 both companies performed over 1.6 million exchanges using a restricted, cumbersome, slow, and expensive process for the timeshare owner.
The process being used for trading by the major exchange companies, such as RCI and II, requires that a member use a telephone or write a letter in order to "SPACEBANK" a week which is then made available for trade to another member. A member can also "REQUEST" a different week for another desired time and location and a search is conducted by the exchange company employees and the member is informed by telephone or letter if the requested time and place is available. In most instances a member is informed that the requested time and location is not available and new searches for other locations, which can take several months, will be required. Oftentimes the requested timeshare units may actually be available but the member is told that the unit is not available. This misinformation along with allegations that the exchange companies conduct secret tuneshare ratings cause confusion to the members and mistrust of the timeshare industry.
From the 3 million timeshares sold it is estimated that over 200 thousand owners in the United States alone want to sell their timeshares at any one time. The usual procedures for resale are through classified ads, auctions; and Estate Sales. A few large resorts provide resale programs which get very little attention and most smaller resorts can not conduct resale programs. In addition, owners are discovering that there is no appropriate system or mechanism for selling or purchasing used timeshares. In fact, in a 1992 survey conducted by Resort Property Owners Association it was found that 58 percent of timeshare owners wanted to sell but only 3 percent were able to do so.
Presently, the usual procedure to conduct and complete the purchase of a timeshare property is to personally visit the site, and listen to hours of high pressure sales from the resort representatives. For most people there is very little opportunity to visit other sites in the United States or other countries to compare values.